Congress hopeful of reaching double digits in Delhi polls

New Delhi: The Congress is hopeful of winning some seats in the Delhi assembly elections held on February 8, the results of which will be announced on Tuesday.

A senior Congress leader said "Guessing the results a day ahead is not a wise idea but we are going to get more than the predictions."

The Congress is hopeful of winning at least 10 seats in the assembly even though the exit polls say otherwise. The party is doing an internal assessment on the voting pattern.

"The party which was harping on the legacy of the late chief minister Sheila Dikshit could not put forward a credible face against Kejriwal which has harmed the party. Had Sheila Dikshit been around, the result would have been different," said a leader who did not wish to be named.

The party has not been able to match the high octane campaign of the BJP and the "Bijli Paani" narrative of the AAP. The party has seen internal rifts ahead of the elections and could not decide the candidates early which also affected the party's prospects.

"The Delhi voters had connected to the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections where the party came second on five seats, but reluctance of senior leaders to contest despite Sonia Gandhi asking them to has also harmed the party," said another party leader.

The Congress which is keeping its fingers crossed ahead of the results as the party has high hopes from some candidates.

According to the IANS-CVoter Exit Poll, the Congress seems to be an insignificant player in the Delhi assembly polls with a seat projection of anything between zero and four seats.

The Congress had drawn a blank in the 2015 assembly elections.

According to the exit poll, the Congress has hardly recovered from its rout in 2015. But many would say that the party's lacklustre campaign is also to blame for the anti-BJP votes getting deflected towards the AAP, which is tipped to get anywhere between 49 and 63 seats.